The UK Innovation Corridor celebrated its 15th anniversary on Tuesday 14th July at a reception hosted by Knowledge Partner Trowers & Hamlins, bringing together local authority members and private sector partners from across the region, alongside former Stevenage Council leader and current government minister Baroness Sharon Taylor.
More than 100 guests gathered at Trowers & Hamlins’s headquarters in London to mark 15 years of the partnership, and plan for a significant increase in the Corridor’s contribution to UK PLC.
The Corridor’s case has strengthened with every year of that journey. The corridor economy now generates £284 billion in GVA, 16 per cent of England’s output, and has delivered a quarter of the country’s net new knowledge-intensive jobs since 2016. The Innovation Corridor has adopted a target of increasing this to £350 billion in GVA by 2040, in recognition of the unique positive characteristics that exist within the region.
Attendees heard from Baroness Sharon Taylor on a series of government initiatives that are designed to drive growth in the Corridor. A long-standing supporter since her time leading Stevenage Borough Council, the MHCLG Minister congratulation members for their work and encouraged the assembled audience to be ambitious about the future.
Commenting on the anniversary, John McGill, Director of the UK Innovation Corridor, said: “The Corridor was built on a simple idea that we achieve more together than we do alone. Fifteen years on, the evidence is on our side, and the next fifteen will be about delivery.”
Innovation Corridor Chair, Jackie Sadek, added: “This Corridor is an absolute economic powerhouse and it is the closest thing we have to Silicon Valley in the UK. Our challenge for the next 15 years is to maintain and more than double our contribution to UK PLC, and through collaboration, I have no doubt we can do it.”
The UK Innovation Corridor thanks its member authorities, university partners, Knowledge Partners and all who have contributed to the partnership since 2011.
